We stumbled upon this unusual hotel whilst sniffing about for weekend getaway bargains. Le Meridien have built this whopper of a hotel and dropped it literally in the middle of nowhere. There's nothing wrong with the setting of course on the eastern coast of the United Arab Emirates, but just don't expect to be doing much other than what the hotel puts on for you.

The quality and service is excellent, and there's a really peaceful de-stress feel to the place. We ended coming back here a number of times for 1-2 nighters since we enjoyed it so much. Part of the reason was that they have a scuba diving facility which takes you to some of the nearby east coast dive sites (which was good for us since the scuba scene in the Persian Gulf on the Dubai side is pretty much non-existent).

All in all, a good place for a chill out. If you're feeling brave and want to see what else is on offer in the surrounding towns of Fujairah and Dibba, well I can tell you from what we saw, very, very little. You'll think you've just stepped out of an Arabic time machine compared to Dubai.

For serious scuba divers, you can take a day trip on a boat up to the Musandam Channel on the northern tip of Oman. We enjoyed it, no major sightings to report, but occasionally they can have some big fish cruising through the channel.